The lack of Women’s Rights in Pakistan

Hi !

I want to thank the author for this article. We need these kind of articles each and everyday.

I agree with author that we were great in 7th century.

But I have a question to ask. What did go wrong with us and Where and Why and When ?

We are just playing with the lines of Kuran and other religious books. By citing few excerpts from these books we finish our diagnosis of our problems. If a rape victim has to come up with 4 witnesses of the rape then why don t we make this heroic work a legal thing. Every time we say that Islam gave women right to say no if they don t want to marry someone. But in these last 1400 years how many women have said, `` Kabool Nahi hai`` . We can solve our problems by saying our culture was way ahead of any other culture. That is why we need to take rational decisions keeping the pervalent situation in our mind. There might be many things supported by Islam which were better than other religions in 7th century but this is 21st century and we need to adopt many new things while giving up few things which are not relevant and are inhuman. When someone asks me whether these traditions(Discussed by the author) are true, I can not say that we were ahead of you in 7th century.

Let us not rush to religious books for each and everything in life ,

let us learn from others,

let us come out of this Superiority complex ,

let us start accepting that something is wrong with ourselves, our culture and our Religion .

Glorifying one s past is good but let us look at the present and future also. The whole world looks at us

with suspicion. Let up stop issuing and supporting Fatwas to those who has a different point of view. If they are doing something wrong, let Allah punish them.

Let us try to become liberal , rational, open and understanding human beings

Regards

Typo error,

Read:- We can not solve our problems by saying our culture was way ahead of any other culture,instead of We can solve our problems by saying our culture was way ahead of any other culture.

dear shabbaz

Islam is a religion that would be the guiding principle for all times to come. But we Muslims, on the other hand, intrepret its guidance in the 7th century framework instead with reference to the 21th century.

Be it economic principles or social justice, we are the ones to blame and not Islam. Lets not malign Islam as the Western media does (Wall Street used Islamic terrorism on its front page yesterday).

While Quran mentions interest it refers to circumstances related to sustanance of human beings but was not specified for business transactions. Eliminate interest from the economy today and people would seek safe habour from inflationary forces by investing in real assets (causing inflationary pressures and distorting real demand).

Witness, today, come in various forms. Today witness is not restricted to only one that has seen the crime personally but there are expert witnesses that are able to analyse clues related to the crime. Rape, today, can be analysed from DNA from the sperm of the offender. It is no longer a requirement that 4 individual be present to see the crime but 4 individual may still recreate the crime. The idea of Islam is to ensure that a person should be convicted not on the say so of just one person but should be convicted on the basis of actual or circumstantial evidence or supported by adequate proof.

While the author tries to get the readers sympathy by relating injustice on women by equating it with rape he does not suggest a remedy that resolves the issue. Rape is something that is common in whatever society that you come accross. Dealing with the crime is the issue that should have been discussed. Just by increasing the level of litracy or changing the societial structure neither rape will disappear nor women will get their rights.

It is important to note that awarding rights to one segment of the society should not mean taking rights away from another. Marital Rape falls in that category. This puts the accuser`s word against that of the accused.

Islam is not against women receiving education nor is it against them making a positive contribution to the economy. The number of Muslims that follow Taliban or the Saudi intrepretation of Islam are insignificant to those that practise Islam with a more broader understanding. This means we should not treat Muslims as one monolitic group with the one being more visible to the media being representative of the rest. There are a billion Muslims in the world with less than 4% being subject to Taliban and Saudi laws.

Patriarchal society is no more the domain of Islam than terrorism being a faceut of Islam. You can find terrorism with IRA or a patriarchal Christian following in orthodox Greek, Spanish and Italian, etc. communities.

We should strive to understand what forces communities to follow restrictive frameworks (accross religious barriers) before we might be able to eliminate these injustices.

Comparative studies is something few of us undertake even in our own fields (mine being comparative accounting and auditing standards), leave alone in other fields of learning (like religion or social structures).

Nice article. Here are some of my thoughts on the subject.

SHROUDED MINDS

No ijma, no ijtehaad
Instead, nonsensical fatowaat.
No deviation from the narrow path
Passively waiting for another Somnath
Depending on the glory of our past ghazwaat
Have we not become pawns
under the mullah’s Jagannath
If not that, then unabashedly pursuing
Western demigods, and thought.

No Al-Beruni, no Ibn-i-Sina,
whither Ibn-Rushd
Qurtuba and Madinah?
Yes today
we are leaderless, teacherless.
Withering, impotent.
Spineless!

We ridiculously constitutionalize
an ordinance called Hudood
We attempt to fossilize
your Life, Woman.
Surely, we have you misunderstood.

Let’s celebrate today
the Amendment called Shariah.
Celebrate what! I say-
Our descent into Jahiliyaah?

Open dialogue
Start debate
Chase away the shrouds of fog,
the rigid dogma, the unyielding dictum
that has caused our minds to clog.
Only then will our past
not be merely prologue,
or worse,
a sad epilogue
mentioned briefly at the end of a discussion of ages gone by,
but one of many in a catalogue
of past civilizations.

Anita

I agree with the author since he has proved his point based upon the interpretations of Islam followed by the major faction of Muslims today.

I don`t want to offend any one by stating that but the interpretation of Islam followed by 77% of todays Muslim world is by it self distorted and irrational. This is the hallmark of these interpretations which segregate women from the society, barring her from the rights of inheritance, and supressing any logic and reason which don`t match the ``story tellers` `` of 4th century AH interpretaions of Islam.

While author looks towards China and West for the women rights, He completely overlooks the womens` right movement in post revolution Iran started by the Ayatullahs of Iran. He agrees that during the last prophet`s time, women used to offer prayers with men in the mosques he doesn`t mention the five prayers held in the mosques in Iran in which both sexes are participated.

Well, SaudiArabia where so called true Islam is followed, the women are not even allowed to drive their own vehicle. It`s not their fault either because according to the deviated Islam women can not perform even Hajj(one of the five pillars of Islam) alone as like Mormonism in Utah, she has no identity of her self other than with her male relative(mehram).

I don`t want to pass judgements and offend any one, but if you study the schools of thoughts of the majority muslims(Hanafi, Hanbali, and so on), whatever is happening in Pakistan, SaudiArabia, Afghanistan, and even in Egypt is proved and supported by the 4th century doctrines and heresays of the four ``S`` imams.

To cut the long story short, there is one form of Islam which is entirely different from all deviated interpretations and if you look in to it you wouldn`t find any flaws and defauls in it. This is the only form of Islam in which logic and reasoning leads the ways of practice under the light of Koran.

By the way, the doors of jurisprudence (IJTEHAD) are only closed among the followers of Hanafi, Shafi, Hanbali, and Malki, but Not among the followers of the last prophet Muhammed(PBUH) and his household(PBUT). So please don`t malign Islam but malign those who are deviated from it.

Also, I want to appreciate the author for questioning and casting doubt on the flawed interpretations of Islam as many will do in future as the literacy will grow among the majority of muslims, because login and reasoning are definitely more appealing than fantasies.



As is quoted on the main page of CHOWK ``Little knowledge is dangerous, know it all``



questions/concerns/replies???

Wow!! In the span of 10 mins you have become my hero.

Having said that I do have a few points

All that you say is not new to us, you`ve just added some hard core facts and figures.Women`s rights, Child labor, illiteracy, high mortality rate.....the list is endless.....we all go on and on about it......and its heartening to see some feel strongly about it as well.

But the bottom line is what can we do??Its easy enough to say build a secular state....but what can be done practically starting at an individual level to a chowkwalla level.

We can think it,we can write it, what can we do about it??

Any ideas??

Nushmia

(P.S ...A RAPE OCCURS EVERY 3 HRS...I am very interested in knowing the source of this data)

The quranic punishment for zina, which is arabic for consentual sex and includes both adulterous and non-adulterours relationship, has been prescribed as 100 lashes. With the condition that four witnesses can be produced who actually see the act in progress and whose testimony can be fully and completely trusted i.e. they have never been known to lie. Looking at this particular injunction of the Quran, one gets the feeling that Allah, though condemning such relationships in no uncertain terms, wants to postpone the punishment to the hereafter. Because for four witnesses to become available the act really has to be committed in a chowk. And if that chowk were a Pakistani chowk with a few hundred ogling viewers, chances are that not one of them will qualify the witness character test. So, basically, for all intents and purposes, it is impossible to convict a couple that privately engages in zina and has taken appropriate precautions for birth control.



The stupidity of Pakistani law is such that it has managed to confuse rape and consentual sex. Rape is a crime of violence. Let us suppose that a man beats a woman so badly that she is visibly injured. That woman can go to the police station (thana) and register her complaint. According to Pakistani law, police will not call for the fulfilment of four witness condition, because according to complaintee no sex act was committed, she was only beaten up and that was that. She may have lost an arm but she was not subjected to rape. There is a possibility, remote as it may be, that the perpetrator is caught, tried and sent to prison. That is, if he was really stupid. There was a very simple get-away method. All that he needed to do was that after beating and severly injuring the woman, he should have spared a few extra minutes and should have raped her. That would have secured him the ultimate `Get out of Jail Free` card. The poor woman - even her FIR would not have been registered.



Rape is like in other crime of violence and has to be treated and investigated as such. These days forensic science is available and it is not very difficult to prove that a crime was indeed committed. But this simple remedy is not visible to Pakistani lawmakers. Why do you think we are where we are?



Coming back to the four witness condition condition for zina. Islamic teaching is amazingly fair and balanced and cannot in any way be classed as against a woman, or man for that matter. On one hand we have the punishement, which is 100 lashes. On the other, we have almost equivalent punishment, of 80 lashes for a accuser, who even if he/she is telling the truth but fails to corroborate his/her testimony with four other (truthful) witnesses.



In the matter of zina, the intention of Islam is very clear: It clearly forbids the act. For those who do it, and do it in private, Islam looks the other way and leaves the punishment for the Hereafter. It closes the door for whisperers and gossipers and warns them of severe physical punishment as a consequence of loose talk. As a matter of fact, it is much more likely that an accuser gets 80 lashes than the perpetrators getting even one. The point to note is that even if such acts are being committed in an Islamic society, the involved parties will need to take good care to keep them secret. And when it is kept secret, the rest of the society does not get polluted. Very unlike the western society where sex is glamourised and people proudly relate thier experiences and in the process incite other people to do the same.

I thought I may not have been clear in my earlier note. Hence this clarification.

Islam does not even remotely require the fulfilment of four witness condition from victims of rape. This is a Pakistani thing, and Islam cannot be held responsible for ass-laws of Pakistan. Zina is extra-marital consentual sex. Islam has attached stigma to it by way of imposing the 100 lashes sentence and has with great wisdom balanced it with the requirement of four witnesses.

One major difference between consentual extra-marital sex and rape is that the former is a crime against one`s self, whereas the latter is a crime against another individual. This puts both in entirely different categories and to confuse one with the other is an abomination. Only Pakistani courts and lawmakers are capable of doing that. Please spare Islam the apologies.

One other thing: Quran is not a book of criminal law. Nowhere does it try to list all concieveable crimes along with their sentences. There are a few specifics that cover a only a small number of crimes and there are general instructions that cover the rest. There is at least one verse of the Quran that prescribes death penalty to those that who seriously disturb the peace of the society ( I dont have the reference readily availble). It can be argued that rapist would fall under that category. Islam is not preventing national legislatures to pass a law that would provide for a severe punishment for rape.

One last point. For those who argue that the verses of Quran relating to zina are equally applicable on rape, I ask: Is 100 lashes a sufficient punishment? On the application of the 100 lashes, remember that we are not talking about General Zia style koray. Islamic lawmakers of the more enlightened times (authors of Fiqh) have argued that the purpose of 100 lashes is not to bring about physical punishment but the purpose is to bring shame to the individuals concerned. Hence they have suggested that the lashes may only be applied with something called a `durra`, which is leather strap just a little longer then the length of an average hand. Also, the jurists have determined that the striker may not move when striking and needs to stand directly above the person being struck. Also, the striker may not take the hand above the horizontal when striking.

The question is: Is this punishment sufficient for a rapist. Of course not. It is a joke to even call it a punishment for a crime as serious as rape.

Asif. (omer@thethinker.com)

I`d like to reply to some of the questions that readers posed. Sorry for the delay, didn`t know they published it!

Ysmallik : ``What did go wrong with us, and where and when & why ?`` I honestly believe that the answer lies at about the time of the rejection of Aristotelian logic & when muslims came to start burning books as opposed to reading them. Muslim Society which was thus way ahead of Western society at the time stagnated, as did our mindset. We stoppeed the process of healthy evolution, when the gates of Ijtehad were closed, and when the books of Ibn-Rushd were burned later, the rot had settled in. The rejection of knowledge for the sake of acquiring knowledge is crucial to gaining an understanding. As we all know at the time of Sir Syed Ahmed Khan, even learning English had been rejected by the Indian muslim community. The question that was being asked was ``how will this contribute to my getting into the doorway to heaven?`` The answer was clearly it would not. So there was no point any longer to acquiring knowledge if it had no spiritua application. It was this fatalistic mentality that created the conditions in which the Islamic culture of learning of the past was abandoned. If our only goal is this world is to attain heaven, who cares if there are potholes in the roads, who cares if women are not educated (its SAFER/EASIER to control illiterates), who cares if we no longer invent anything original? These are the hallmarks of a decaying culture/civilization. We never recovered as a civilization from the time this mentality took root. FORM TRIUMPHED OVER SUBSTANCE. Rote memorization of the Quran/& previous commentaries on it triumphed over a deeper/newer understanding in light of present times. There is a good article on chowk which goes into some detail on this issue, ``Why the Scientific Revolution did not happen in Islam?``, however my views were not conditioned by it.

Re: Shahbaz - Don`t forget the Crusaders who killed 100,000 muslims in Jerusalem. It is they who are the forebearers of today`s P.C/``Enlightened`` West. Don`t blame Islam just because of the myth that it was spread by the sword. There was no coercision in he mass conversions to Islam. The Arabs were totally surprised. So who were the real savages and barbarians ? Methinks the Christian Crusaders.

Nice poem Anita !

Krizvi : Myself being a Sunni, I addressed the Sunnis social strictures only, not the Shias. Thanks for bringing up the lack of segregation in mosques in Iran.

Nushmia : Yes, I do care passioonately from the heart. As for what we can do, well i`d like to say that voting for people who are not religious bigots and who do not use religion as a tool to control the masses in Pakistan is a good start. Throw the rascals out I say ! Stop voting for those who abuse religion for political ends. The problem for secular parties in Pakistan is that they cannot appeal to the masses in relevant terms. The masses care about issues of sustenance, not religion, but religion (ad a person`s personal religious beliefs/practice) is used for purposes of character assasination by the religious parties, and ofcourse this obscures the real issues (inflation, corruption, nepotism, standard of living etc) from the masses. That is why I stated unequivically that 100% female literacy is the gaol. It is the way to empower women trapped in the 4 walls of Jahiliya in Feudal/Patriarchial Pakistani society (Balauchistan has a 2% female literacy rate). Most figures are from Dawn, or Amnesty International Reports on Pakistan.

asif_omer : Yup, the difficulty of registering FIR`s is a serious problem in rape cases in Pakistan. That is why most rapes are not even reported, that, and ofcourse the shame that society unfairly heaps on the rape victim (she must have done something to invite it is the mentality in Pakistan, and this is partly because there is no recognition in law of the real difference between consensual sex and rape in Pakistan).

OMAR1974/OMAR MIRZA

Incidently Shahbaz, since Islam is so retrogressive in every way, and by implication the West so progressive, how come Chastity belts were invented in W.Europe and used on Christian women to control their sexuality in this crude manner (for centuries) ? Answer that one for me if u can.

OMAR1974/OMAR MIRZA

Nushmia writes :

``But the bottom line is what can we do??Its easy enough to say build a secular state....but what can be done practically starting at an individual level to a chowkwalla level.

We can think it,we can write it, what can we do about it??

Any ideas??

Nushmia``

Dear Nushmia,

Well, for one thing I`d rather give my Zakat money to an NGO that has a program for increasing literacy (there are a number of good ones in Pakistan) than to our corrupt govt that squanders it through a system of corruption & nepotism thereby ensuring that the truly needly get nothing. Similarly I`d rather teach sometime to fish than simply give them a single or few meals. This is taking action on an individual level and making a real difference in a child`s life. A mind is a terrible thing to waste. Unfortunately in Pakistan, that is the legacy of 50 years of independence.

The rulers try to feed the hunger of the nation by force feeding them religion to divert their attention from the great pillage of the state`s resouces they are guilty of. The masses are being fed sand for lack of another alternative. Tell someone a lie over and over enough times, and they will start to believe it.

So, the illiterates believe the simple axiom that ``Islam is the solution. (to EVERYTHING)`` If men were angels, maybe we wouldn`t need anything else. But, the reality is somewhat different, a greedy class of feudals & now Mr.Nawaz Sharif, who has pillaged the national exchequer by borrowing far more than the value of the collateral he put up with the banks, have defrauded the nation. They should all be taken and put up against a brick wall and summarily shot. The entire feudal class of politicans who have looted the country, refused to pay taxes ... should be liquidated. They are responsible for the poor plight of the country including its women by their failure to show leadership and deprecedations of national resources. Why does no legislator table a motion to annul the Hudood laws ? Stand up to the Jamaat! Speak with honesty to the people in a national address. Don`t mince words. Don`t be intimidated by society, start a genuine discussion within your own family and society, if you liked the article and the issues it raised and addressed bluntly, print it out and hand out copies to people. Lets make an effort to acknowledge the problems and work on a solution. Most of this stuff is niormally swept under the rug in social circles and is not exactly the stuff of polite drawing room conversations. Some of the other articles on Chowk by Bad Girl & others are excellent in raising issues, but if you keep this stuff bottled up inside you and don`t openly discuss it at the dinner table, hey! What do you expect me to say ? I`ve taken up the challenge with my entire circle of family and friends to open up a real debate and discuss solutions. So should u. I don`t care any longer if anyone is offended by my bluntness, if they are uncomfortable, too bad.

OMAR1974/OMAR MIRZA

OMAR1974@aol.com

Salaams/Greetings

It is a blessing to welcome more and more aboard the ``calling a spade a spade`` attitude against the patriarchal, regressive and hypocritical and frustrating situation prevailing in Pakistan, promoted further thru silence and/or oppression.

No, this situation is not because of Islam, which is used as a door mat to tramp on every time, we think about rights and unrights; we don’t know, what this ideology is about. Nor is Pakistan an Islamic state by defination of an islamic state; the mere mention of Quran and Sunna in its constitution doesn`t accredit this defination. Yes, going by the population, we may call it a Muslim state. Anyhow this condition is born out of many ``aetiologies``, but the one contributing to its nurturing and promotion most efficiently is our ``ostriching`` visa vie the truth behind the cover of the pseudomorality and nek parveen approach by our people.

It is time we stopped abusing our possibilities, that we started reflecting and get up beyond this passive embossed ideas of tradition and cultures, which we drag along without even knowing their origin, not bothering to ask if they are right or wrong - and this is the very point Islam is about- to distinguish between right and wrong. I guess it would be a very enlightening venture for all of us, if we would start asking/evaluating ourselves and our society in this very light!

I think a few points about the Islamic aspect have been already raised in the interaction to this article and I will thus refrain from it. As to the Islamic rights and revolution, I will leave this discussion with one thought to reflect upon for our readers: ``Islam is the most modern concept of life``- convince yourself and don’t let urself, as a Muslim be used as a doormat when the next exploitation is hoisted by ANYONE- the west, the east, the politicians, the next movie or be it the milkman. How? why? Here I will quote a revert: ``we Muslims in fact confirm the presumptions against Islam through our practise.`` Anyone interested to read further on this, I strongly recommend to read Dr. Jamal Badawi’s work-may God bless him. (for info, feel free to email me: ch4310ag@usa.net)

I will however shortly comment on one aspect, which Omar raised in his discussion: Dowry (jaheez) has no significance in Islam; the woman is entitled to her share in inheritance regardless of dowry. This property is at her SOLE disposal to which no one has any right. She as an individual (yes, she is an individual without her mahram!) is the only one responsible for it and having a right over it! I learned of the Hindu tradition, that dowry is the girl’s share of inheritance, but it certainly has no such position in Islam. The height of our ignorance is, that this tradition is adopted and promoted, people even shamelessly offer their daughter in marriage with a offering a high amount of dowry (I read the matrimonials with my own eyes) and on the other hand, people assess a prospective bride in terms of the dowry, that comes along- alhamdulilah there are still sincere people around, but all the same, the concern around the dowry isn’t that uncommon. I guess this is one of the many aspects by which we publicly exploit the women’s status- by a Non Islamic tradition, which we ignorantly have adopted as our own, but when it comes down to issues, we condemn Islam for it, not our own ignorance in promoting unislamic and inhuman traditions. No, Islam stands at a much higher level of perception and justice- give urself the chance to take up this challenge of revolution today and ‘emancipation’; a term abused and exploited by the very society, who gave birth to it!

What I would like to convey in this reply is that, let’s not exert our energies in pronouncing our differences- we are Muslims, no one cares if we are shi’a, sunni, hanafi, maliki, deobandi and whatsoever. Our faith is Islam - period. These fiqhas (islamic jurisprudence) are only propositions how to practise it. We should not forget, that these proposals are not an absolute statement- they were opinions after thorough research-not hearsay, as someone expressed in the replies- of these scholars. They were very humble in their approach and they respected each other, even if they had different opinions. Dr. Jamal Badawi once said, the more one knows, the more one becomes humble and openminded. He certainly does have a point; just look at the narrow minded approach of some scholars of our time, who make robots of you, thinking is not allowed! Little knowledge indeed is a dangerous thing: it promotes an intolerant, immature and narrow minded approach. Back to the scholars, it may be of interest to quiet a few, that Imam Abu Hanifa and Imam Jafar, who stood within a scholar-student relationship to each other, also had very high opinion for each other’s knowledge regarding the fiqh. Btw for those, who say fiqh was interpreted by men: imam Malik counted to the students of a very renown female scholar of law; if my memory isn’t failing me, her name was Rabbi’a.

No, Ijtehad and progression by no means has stopped- u are always asked to reflect, think, evaluate and assess before u adopt anything- convince urself from the Quran and the Hadeeth. There is in fact a Hadeeth asking you decide for yourself, even if the scholars give you right.

I will sign off with endorsing the question: what can be done? Anyone interested to take up this discussion????

Ma Salaam/regards

Dear Tabassum, got your e-mails and read your post here. Glad to see some people are impassioned!

My solution as suggested in the article towards the end in restoring and giving women equal rights is simple. I`m not going to talk the language of the mullahs anymore. Enough already. We need to impose a civic conception of rights in which all citizens are treated equally. That would eliminate the misguided Jamaatis from the equation. I no longer wish to put the strain on by lungs by yelling myself hoarse and trying to impress them with the SPIRIT of the laws of true Islam (and arguing about what that is) that as i stated is missing in Pakistan today.

The ideal should now be the state Jinnah envisaged. Look at the sectarian bloodshed and religious killings in so-called Islamic Pakistan today. People are willing to murder their fellow muslims, over what ? Lets not try to force one version down anyone`s throats shall we?

Simple solution, take religion out of the political equation. It is not in the words of Jinnah THE BUSINESS OF THE STATE to intrude or inquire into pvt religious practice.

End of most problems we face today in Pakistan related to religion.

I disagree that women in the West do not posess equal rights. That statement of yours is blind to current reality. Women have made a lot of progress. For starters men don`t run their lives for them, they can make many more choices than women in Pakistan. I`m not blaming Islam for that, just stating reality.

OMAR

more later